10 November
2011
A team of
scientists from the University
of Southampton were today
awarded the Royal Society Brian
Mercer Award for Innovation 2011
in recognition of their
invention of an attachment for
taps which massively enhances
the ability of water to clean.
Currently, industry uses
excessive water, power and
additives for cleaning. For
example, it can take up to 100
tonnes of water to produce 1
tonne of clean wool after
shearing. Many industrial
processes also generate large
quantities of contaminated
run-off. The water from hosing
down an abattoir represents a
real health risk and cannot be
allowed to enter the water
supply. Purifying run-off is
costly – each cubic metre of
water used for cleaning in the
nuclear industry can cost around
£10,000 to subsequently treat.
Professor Tim Leighton and Dr
Peter Birkin’s device works with
cold water, minimal additives
and consumes as much electrical
power as a light bulb. Its
application will be wide –
licenses have already been sold
to a number of industries to
look at cleaning in food
preparation, hospitals,
manufacturing and the home. The
new technology consumes less
water and power than the
established competitor
technologies.
Using the £250,000 award from
the Royal Society, the team will
develop products based on an
ultrasonic nozzle which can fit
on the end of a tap or hose. The
device uses less water and power
than the equivalent pressure
washer (approximately 2
litres/minute compared to 20
litres/minute and less than 200
W compared to 2kW). It is also
far less damaging as the stream
pressure is less that 1/100th
that of a pressure washer.
Another advantage is that it
generates far less runoff &
aerosol (tiny atmospheric
particles of water that can
carry contaminates into the air
to then settle and contaminate
other surfaces). As it is able
to use cold water, energy is
saved on heating water.
Power washing generates large
volumes of contaminated run-off
and aerosols, presenting a
hazard when used e.g. cleaning
sewage systems or nuclear
contamination. One of the main
pieces of equipment currently
used for industrial cleaning,
ultrasonic cleaning baths, can
only clean objects small enough
to fit in them and the devices
to be cleaned sit in a soup of
contaminated liquid. Neither
power washing (high-power
pressure washing) nor ultrasonic
cleaning baths can easily be
scaled up and neither can be
used on delicate materials such
as hands or salad.
The new nozzle generates both
bubbles and ultrasound. Both
travel down the water stream to
the dirty surface and there the
bubbles act as microscopic
‘smart scrubbers’, seeking and
entering crevices to remove dirt
there using shear forces in the
same way that currents in a
babbling brook can strip off
riverbank soil . The device can
be used at a high-power and a
low-power setting – the latter
being suitable for delicate
products like hands and
foodstuffs.
Licences to enable companies
to bring the technology into
their product lines have been
negotiated with a number of
companies to explore cleaning
products for hospital hygiene,
dentistry, food preparation,
manufacturing and the power
industries.
Talking about the need for
such a technology, Professor
Leighton said:
“Society runs on its ability
to clean. Ineffective cleaning
leads to food poisoning; failure
of manufactured products such as
precision watches and
microchips; and poor
construction – from shipbuilding
to space shuttles – since dirty
surfaces do not bond. The impact
in healthcare is huge –
hospital-acquired infections,
from instruments that aren’t
properly cleaned, cost the NHS
£1 billion per year. There’s a
very obvious need for
technologies that improve our
ability to clean while saving on
our most important resources,
water and energy.”
His co-inventor Dr Birkin
said of the award:
“The Brian Mercer award
represents a significant
milestone for the development of
this technology and its possible
exploitation. There is a clear
gap in the funding system with
ground breaking technology
produced by Universities,
unexploited by industry. It is
also difficult to find other
suitable sources to take the
technology further. It is in
this situation that our
invention found itself. In
these trying times for
innovative research, the
foresight of the RS to regularly
sponsor and support these
initiatives, should be
congratulated. It is also
pleasing that a significant
‘blue skies’ research effort
within our team, over the last
10-15 year time period, has led
to an understanding of the basic
physical and chemical processes
that underpin this technology.
The Brian Mercer award, as well
as being timely, will
significantly enhance the
chances of this novel technology
making the leap from the lab and
into wider society.”
Professor Leighton added:
“Support for step changing
innovation is vital if we are to
have marketable technology to
address the problems that will
face society on the 10-50 year
timescale, rather than just
responding to today’s
problems.”
The Brian Mercer Awards for
Innovation were established by
the Royal Society in 2001
following a bequest from the
late Dr Brian Mercer, an
enthusiastic inventor and
entrepreneur. The awards aim to
encourage these qualities in the
next generation of scientists
and provide a grant of £250,000
to develop an already proven
concept or prototype into a
near-market product.
